Brazil doesn't deserve a security council seat (yet)

By Juan Pablo Spinetto

As is customary, a Brazilian president kicked off the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week. Also as is customary, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva used the occasion to re-state his country’s long-running aspiration to occupy a permanent seat at the Security Council, the UN’s great powers club.

“The exclusion of Latin America and Africa from permanent seats on the Security Council is an unacceptable echo of domination practices of the colonial past,” Lula rightly said, leaving implicit the conclusion that Brazil is entitled to that spot.

The moment couldn’t be better for such inclusion. As my colleague Andreas Kluth has written, the whole world accepts that the UN and its Security Council are anachronistic, generally dysfunctional and in desperate need of reform. What better voice to join the club than Latin America’s largest economy, a diverse and culturally rich country with a history of peace and a deep appreciation for multilateralism and universal values.

But unfortunately, Lula’s 19-minute speech to his fellow leaders offered no compelling example of what Brazil could bring to the Security Council table in practical terms that couldn’t already be achieved through the current system of rotating seats. Beyond the leftist president’s greatest hits — railing against the ultra-rich, world hunger, climate change, military spending and even Elon Musk’s X — Lula’s argument seems to be that his country deserves a permanent perch just because it’s Brazil, a key member of what’s now pompously called the “Global South.”

As pitches go, this amounted to an epic fail. It would have been much more persuasive if it had been backed by concrete examples of what Brazil’s diplomacy can achieve, beyond its capacity to get along with most governments. Sadly, Lula’s international record is much less impressive, marred by his easily bruised ego, ideological rigidities and double standards.

Consider the audacity of Lula calling for Ukraine and Russia to sit down and hold peace talks when he personally can’t do something much more mundane, like meeting his neighbor and ideological nemesis Javier Milei. “I only want him to apologize,” Lula argued a few months ago when asked why he still hasn’t met the Argentine leader. “He spoke a lot of nonsense,” he added, effectively putting on ice any imminent encounter between the leaders of two historically friendly neighbors and partners.

This is more than a trivial anecdote: It cuts to the core of Lula’s superficiality and helps to explain his negligible impact on the global stage. To say you are in favor of all good and against all bad can play well with crowds but it’s not exactly leadership. You wouldn’t be mistaken in thinking that Lula is so fond of giving his grand opinions about the Israel-Gaza conflict or the Ukraine-Russia war because Brazil doesn’t really have any skin in those games. They are faraway conflicts that Brasilia can encapsulate in platitudes such as “peace should prevail.” Now, when it comes to Brazil’s own conflict-ridden neighborhood, Lula seems to choose his words very carefully on sensitive issues such as the increasing dangers of autocracies in Latin America.

It needs to be said clearly: Lula’s decision not to devote even a few syllables of his speech to Venezuela’s rigged election and Nicolás Maduro’s latest power grab is a moral lapse that debases his stature as regional leader — a betrayal highlighted by the words of his American counterpart Joe Biden, who a few minutes later reminded everyone what really happened in Caracas on July 28.

What’s the value of including Brazil in the Security Council if it takes to the world stage without addressing — forget solving — the conflicts in its own backyard? Soft power is important, and Brazil has plenty of that, but to be taken seriously among nuclear powers, you also need to show your willingness to stand up to bullies and tyrants. If not even Daniel Ortega fears you, then you resemble a paper tiger. At least Lula mentioned Haiti, another regional hotspot that Latin American countries have chosen to leave to other nations, in this case...Kenya. And of course no good speech from the left side of the podium would be complete without a passing reference to the US embargo on Cuba (but not the repression and mismanagement that have driven as much as 18% of its population to flee in the past two years).

Don’t get me wrong, Brazil is an emerging power with good reasons to aspire to the Security Council. It’s a consistent advocate for international law and peaceful resolution of controversies in a world experiencing ever greater tensions. It’s a big economy that continues to expand and gain influence in international markets. And it’s a country that’s aware of the big challenges facing the world and has the confidence to tackle them. A recent Pew Research Center analysis shows that about four-in-ten Brazilian adults say their country will eventually become one of the world’s most powerful nations, and about a quarter say it is already among the top powers.

But the Brazilian government’s incapacity before the region’s growing security problems, from uncontrolled migration to political violence and drug trafficking, poses a big question mark about its commitment to promoting order and progress. Lula is making things worse by succumbing to the tendency of Latin American leaders to relate only to their ideological peers, increasing the polarization that has doomed any meaningful and much-needed regional integration.

There is a great line in Brazil’s anthem that exalts its sheer geographical force: “Gigante pela própria natureza/És belo, és forte, impávido colosso/E o teu futuro espelha essa grandeza” (or “Giant by thine own nature/Thou art beautiful, strong, a fearless colossus/And thy future mirrors that greatness.”)

That passage captures the country’s faith in the inevitability of its future triumph by virtue of its magnificent national endowment. There is a bit of that in Brazil’s pitch to occupy a Security Council seat: It’s the country’s right because of its status and size as the world’s fifth largest country. But that’s not how international politics works. You want a spot at the big guys’ table, you have to earn it.